[267] 1 Sam. xxvii. 7, "one year and four months:" xxix. 3, Achish says, "He has been with me--for years." [268] According to the older account, 1 Sam. xxviii. 2, when Achish requires him to march with him against Saul, David replies, "So shalt thou behold what thy servant will do." The narrative of the sending back of David at the wish of the remaining princes, and David's protest against it, belong also to the older narrative. This is repeated in Chronicles (1, xiii. 19) very emphatically, and without any motive in the context, so that it might be possible to accept the same view which represents David as constantly marching against the desert from Ziklag. For the moral estimate of David it is sufficient that it did not rest with him to join in the battle. [269] The story of the witch of Endor (xxviii. 3 ff.) belongs to the later account. To begin with, this account contradicts itself; we are told in the introduction (verse 3) that Saul had removed the necromancers and "wise men" out of Israel, a statement which is repeated in the course of the story (verse 9). Nevertheless Saul causes a witch to be sought out, because when already encamped before the Philistines "he is in great fear of the enemy." Saul was a brave warrior, who even in a worse position had never trembled. He sends for this woman in order to speak with Samuel's ghost. If Saul had any desire to see ghosts, he would desire to see the ghost of Samuel least of all, for he, according to the same prophetic account, had anointed David to be king against Saul (verse 11). Samuel as a ghost has thus a third opportunity for reproaching Saul, and telling him "that Jehovah had given the kingdom to David, because he had not satisfied his wrath on Amalek" (p. 129). [270] 1 Sam. xxxi. 1-11; 1 Chron. x. 10. According to a second account of the death of Saul in 2 Sam. i. ff., an Amalekite came unexpectedly to Mount Gilboa. He finds Saul in flight leaning on his spear, and Saul says to him, "Slay me." The Amalekite does so; takes the crown from the head of the king, and his bracelets, and then flies to Ziklag in the territory of the Philistines in order to bring the crown to David. David causes him to be slain, because "he had lifted up his hand against the anointed of the Lord." The object of this story is too plain--to bring the crown of Saul into the hands of David in order to make him the legitimate king, and at the same time to exhibit David as loyal to Saul even after his death, and avenging his murder--and the impossibilities in it are too great. David afterwards permitted the execution of the remaining descendants of Saul. [271] 1 Sam. xxxi. 12, 13; 2, xxi. 12.